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flatdawgs

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by flatdawgs

  1. Yes, that's one of the paths. You have to prove concept, yadda yadda, but it's fairly straightforward, as is just investing in Portuguese funds/securities (not a huge value play, to say the least). Hopefully none of this gets pushed to the front burner Tuesday evening (I don't think it will, but I live in super blue land).
  2. New government changed the rules, although there may be some new programs I'd be very interested in should they come up. Real estate no longer counts. May just end up retiring and doing the D7 visa instead and not worrying about the investment strategies. There's a house just outside of Tavira I really want to have a look at... need to get back there again.
  3. I have a Tuesday am conference call with my Portuguese attorney - wasn't set up for election day specifically; she set it up and I'm sure there'll be non-Americans on it - but always nice to go over my options again.
  4. I'm rather partial to the whole "secret ballot" thing, so nah. Around here (WA) and as far as I can tell in other VBM states, there is no identifying info on the ballot itself. You sign the exterior (mailing) envelope, which is checked at the county election department, then the envelope is piled up with all the other ones to be opened and the ballot removed from the security envelope inside. The ballots are then processed in large groups. Prior to the ballot being removed from the mailing envelope, yes, they can find your ballot, but once it's taken out they can't. A ballot cast in person of course does not have the signed mailing envelope and so can't be identified at any point. The ballots themselves are identical. This story is poorly written as no ballot has identifying info, VBM or in-person, and the story states otherwise. It appears the election officials did not get adequate proof of citizenship to register the student and he should never have been allowed to vote in the first place. That sort of thing could happen anywhere; fortunately it is exceedingly rare.
  5. Not interesting in so far that the Seattle Times endorsed Harris, but it should be noted that the Blethen family (owners of the paper; Frank wrote this endorsement) are by no means liberal/progressive; they're just not MAGA. The Times has forever been a bulwark of old-school conservative white suburbanism in this area, and the Blethen family has trailed behind the continued leftward movement of the suburbs here (except Alaska, which is Seattle's conservative suburb, heh - IYKYK). I did like the "Hell, yes!" headline, however. Good to see them take a firm stance in their endorsement.
  6. nvm - 2024 primary vs 2020 general - i completely misunderstood you. Post deleted, user banned.
  7. lolololol WA not only has no party registration, but an open "jungle" primary, yet somehow some very specific numbers pop up there. They'd be more believable if they just left that blank for states like WA (they do for "VBM/in person" here where there is no in person voting, so it can be done).
  8. Spoklahoma. Spokane is actually a pleasant enough purply-blue city with some excellent golf courses that always seems on the cusp of boom or collapse, and never does either. I have a lot of family history there; g-g-grandparents moved there 125 years ago with their little girl, who grew up and married there and had my grandmother (all three houses they lived in are still there). They all eventually moved to Seattle, though. /csb The drive from Montana to Spoke isn't bad; it's pretty much through the Rockies the whole way, albeit not the super-scenic parts. It's the drive west from Spokane to Ellensburg that seriously sucks for this part of the country.
  9. lol. Ugliest part of a decidedly not ugly state. Also the heart of MAGAland in WA - central WA is more conservative than the Palouse to the east, mostly due to Whitman County (Pullman/WSU) normally going blue. A Democrat didn't even make the general election in central WA's congressional district, which includes the Tri-Shitties and Moses Hole.
  10. Shit, you don't have to go that far. Drive 45 minutes N, E, or W and you're deep in the heart of MAGA country. Lewis County, WA - about halfway between Seattle and Portland - is Alabama with scenery. Oregon is the most "conservative" (and by far the poorest) of the three West Coast states - they had (modified) Jim Crow laws, anti-miscegenation laws, and despite entering the union as a free state in 1859 was such a sundown state that two of (then) Washington Territory's most prominent pioneers were Black men who crossed the Columbia because Oregon told them and their families to GTFO. Oregon is a very weird state politically - the extremes have always had an outsized role. Even with all that, they're pretty solidly blue and the vast majority of that is neither Antifa or anarchist.
  11. Hell, my entire city burned to the ground a couple of years ago and I missed it. Sounded exciting.
  12. Thanks Wood - figured I could count on you. I've used the metro extensively there (and in a bunch of cities a bit, uh, edgier) and it's generally my preferred method of travel. Fun and underrated city even without the race. Would love to see a Euro race but they'll not be having another Portuguese GP any time soon - shame as Portimão isn't all that far from where I stay in Tavira. Montreal is definitely on the list as well.
  13. Any of the Surly F1 cabal been to CDMX for a race? Trying to convince my brother to go - it's one of my favorite cities to visit. Looks like the track is easily accessible by Metro and was wondering if that's handled well during race weekend.
  14. Somewhat interesting trend in WA that I've not figured out yet. Of course we are a dark blue state, so no worries there (most recent poll has Harris +20, although this will probably end up being 14-16%), but right now ballots returned are at about 60% of 2020 levels as of Election Day -13. Since WA is a 100% vote by mail state and has been for many years, the pandemic really shouldn't account for much difference in ballots received or timing here between 2020 and 2024. Although the state is safely blue, there is one House seat that barely flipped R to D in 2022, and one other that could be in play, worst-case scenario. I'm definitely following this with interest and the hope that for whatever reason the voters are just a bit late this year.
  15. wrong thread dammit
  16. True, but that information is independently verifiable - either they were cashiered or executed, or they weren't. (A couple like von Paulus were captured, true, but Hitler made no bones about what he thought of him for surrendering at Stalingrad rather than eating his last bullet.) Of those that were sacked or executed, it can be surmised that most were felt by Hitler to have disobeyed at one level or another. Rommel notably hadn't, despite not being much of a supporter, but Trump didn't even know who Rommel was (per Kelly).
  17. “Of seventeen field marshals, ten were sent home during the war and three lost their lives as a result of July 20, 1944 [the plot against Hitler]. Only one field marshal managed to get through the war and keep his position. Of thirty-six full generals eighteen were sent home, and five died as a result of July 20 or were dishonorably discharged. Only three full generals survived the war in their positions.” - Field Marshal von Manstein, testimony at Nuremberg So, about those "German generals doing what they were told...."
  18. Much cheaper. Hitler has only got one ball.
  19. My niece in the UK turned 18 in August (no pics ya filthy animals); she's a dual US/UK citizen. She just missed being able to help vote out the Tories but has already returned her ballot for our election. When I talked to her today she was so excited to have voted - glad it seems to be the same rite of passage for her that it was for me. One more youth vote in the bank!
  20. This is a major issue in Canada as well. Just terrible, and as down here mostly ignored.
  21. Yes, the judicial positions in WA state are non-partisan, both at the state and local levels, as are school boards and, at least in Seattle, the mayor and city council (those are off-year elections and so we didn't vote for them this time; they will be ranked choice in 2027). You can't vote a straight party ticket anyway, nor is party registration really a thing here. Almost all of that dates back to the Progressive movement at the turn of the previous century when many Western states wanted to get corrupt party politics out of, well, politics. (King County, which Seattle is a part of, switched to non-partisan offices a couple of decades ago when it became clear to the GOP that even in the suburbs they were becoming unpopular and wanted to hide who they were; it didn't really work for them.) Statewide positions and the Lege are partisan and in other counties/cities they may be as well. For the non-partisan positions I do study the state and county voters' guides as well as other sources - sometimes the candidate's statements in the guides are clear evidence; sometimes it's who they claim support from. There have at times been efforts by the right to "flood the zone" particularly when it comes to the state Supreme Court; to my relief the voters have seen through that to date. This year that didn't happen. We'll see what the voters think about the efforts via initiative to overturn some of the more progressive recent legislation to come out of Olympia.
  22. Filled out ballot this past weekend, researched non-partisan positions (judicial, school board) in the comfort of my home. This year's ballot went quickly as the four state initiatives were all written by hard-core out of state right-wingers and the Seattle transportation levy renewal was a no-brainer yes. Drove past drop box this am, rolled down window, voted. Ballot received by county this afternoon. Yay! Thanks to all of you participating in our democracy, particularly those of you having to wait/stand in line. It's a nice, big middle finger to those who do not want you to vote at all.
  23. Received ballot here in WA Friday and will drop off tomorrow. Definitely not a swing state (Seattle was D+84 on 91% turnout in 2020), but I'm sure the 12 EVs will be appreciated on Election Day. A little bit about how it works here for those of you doing the work to get people to the polls, early voting, and the like. WA was the second fully vote by mail state and has been such for 20 or so years. There are in-person voting centers if you need, or if you want to register - you can register and vote until the polls close at 8pm on election day. There are also drop boxes, some 80 in my county - 2 within 5 minutes of me, and which I'll use rather than the mail. You can sign up for texts that let you know when your ballot is received, counted, etc. Ballots mailed or dropped by 8pm election day are counted. Thanks to all of you doing the hard work in TX, GA and elsewhere - although I hope someday all states make exercising the right to vote as easy as it is here; even the R candidate for governor has been doing GOTV spots - y'all are making the difference in places where they really don't want people to vote. Believe me, it's appreciated here.
  24. Couldn't they find Admiral Horthy Salazar de Schuschnigg? (Kurt Schuschnigg of course being an original member of the Leopards Eating Peoples' Faces Party....)
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